No “primary, obvious, stated target” for Yankees
Posted by: Chad Jennings - Posted in Misc on Dec 02, 2011 
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Brian Cashman rarely says much to the media this time of year. He doesn’t say much when he’s in his office, doesn’t say much when he’s talking on his cell phone and — it turns out — he doesn’t say much when he’s standing on the roof of a 22-story building with a wig on his head and rappelling gear strapped to his waist.
Not saying much comes with the job, I suppose.
This winter, things are especially vague. A year ago, it was obvious that Cashman needed to address Derek Jeter’s negotiations, Mariano Rivera’s brief free agency and the Yankees pursuit of Cliff Lee. This year…
“There’s not a primary, obvious, stated target that everybody knows about,” Cashman said.
Does that mean there’s a target nobody knows about?
“I just think there’s a lot of players out there that I would be interested in acquiring, but I prefer trying to do that under the radar if you can,” Cashman said. “The realistic aspect of actually being able to conclude something (during the Winter Meetings), I don’t have high hopes.”
Feel free to spin that however you’d like. The exchange started with a question about whether these Winter Meetings felt different because there’s no headline name attached to the Yankees. Instead, it seems the team could go any number of directions, with the real possibility that they won’t do much of anything at all.
“We’re making the calls,” Cashman said. “We’re talking to the agents. We’re talking trades with the clubs. For the most part, nothing has transpired yet. Obviously a big effort on our part was CC Sabathia and retaining him. At the same time, we’ve got a lot of talent on this payroll, I mean, on this roster. And our payroll is not limited, it’s just not. If you add up all the money we’ve already got committed, it’s a significant amount, and it’s not necessarily as easy to slide (another big name on the roster).
“Normally a big name is big money, so it’s not as easy to slide that big name, because of the big money, into what we’ve already got committed. We’re having our conversations. We’re talking to other clubs. We’ve got prospects people like, but we like them too. If it makes sense, we’re ready to rock and roll, but if it doesn’t make sense, we’ll look at what we have and appreciate what we’ve got and be ready to go with what we’ve got.”
I love his Yankee Santa hat
re-post!
We’d better get Chow Yun Fat because the Rangers are supposedly all in on Jet Li.
Pat M, we really lucked out on the WV game, South Florida was driving down the field to win the game when they fumbled. We also got lucky that the line had moved to -2, otherwise that field goal at the end would’ve just been for the push and not the cover. Whew.
Love Oregon tonight. 32 points is pretty steep, I may just sit that one out. But gun to my head, I’d rather give the points than take the feckless Bruins.
I feel like I’m not articulating what’s in my head about this deception thing well at all.
Can someone else weight in here? Am I or ID making more sense? (before answering remember who your favorite sabermetrician is!!)
I don’t think either of us are articulating it correctly lol
LGY aka my sabermetrician guru- I’m biased.
I cannot be neutral about this dispute because of my fondness for the Magnetic Fields’ song Smoke and Mirrors:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGNKhVJbDM8
I assume Cashman actually said “And our payroll is not UNlimited….”?
I don’t think it’s proper to say this… Robertson’s 93 mph fastball (as measured by a radar gun) is no more deceiving than Justin Verlander’s 98 mph fastball.
There’s no way to measure that because we don’t have the distance to plate data for Verlander. We know any effect of deception on that fastball is not as significant as it is on Robertsons because we know Robertson has the greatest distance change, and Verlander doesn’t even crack the top 10 (even as a pretty tall guy).
You really need to compare Robertson’s 93mph fastball to someone else’s 93mph fastball, like Phil Hughes. Now it’s way more obvious which one is deceptive and which one is not
ID
Typing just isn’t cutting it. We need a myth busters episode with demonstrations and experiments.
MartinelliJuan @YankeesInk @Buster_ESPN @Ken_Rosenthal Derek Jeter and friends are arriving to Panama for a special game tomorrow. For more info @30treinta
Consider the source and take it for what it’s worth (about 5 cents on the open market). Two are no big mystery and one means damned little considering Gonzalez’ numbers lately.
SI_JonHeyman Jon Heyman
#yankees interested in bringing in mike gonzalez and bringing back andruw jones and eric chavez
LGY aka my sabermetrician guru- I’m biased
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Well that makes it 1-0 LGY!
Sorry everyone but the polls are now closed.
Irreverent Discourse December 2nd, 2011 at 12:40 pm
dasaint – I’d say that’s reading a bit much into it. Ownership still OK’s every move, no matter how significant. That’s why you own stuff… so you make the decisions.
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ID, after reading the above report by Chad, do you still think I’m reading a bit much into what may be happening? Ownership makes major financial decisions, but I can’t belive that they are involved in every aspect of all personnel decisions, particularly ones that don’t have a major financial impact on the payroll. What’s the use in hiring a management team if you can’t let them make the day to day decisions?
Saint
I said last month Cash was going to give his customary $4 million to Gonzalez. But I was just joking! Ugh.
BryanHoch Video of Yankees GM Brian Cashman rappelling down Stamford, Ct. building this morning: atmlb.com/sza1yg
DaSaint – I don’t think that they are in on the process of finding researching and making offers for the most part… but everything has to come across their table to get the stamp of approval at some point. Cashman has been with this organization for a long time and probably has a good fell on which deals need to be run by ownership early in the process, and which ones he can show up with completed that just need a “signature”.
Why am I having such trouble with links today???
Let’s see if this one works…
atmlb.com/sza1yg
OK, I officially give up.
Watch Cashman rappel down this morning.
BryanHoch Bryan Hoch
Video of Yankees GM Brian Cashman rappelling down Stamford, Ct. building this morning: atmlb.com/sza1yg
Robertson is really good, hitters aren’t just going to adjust to his fastball because they can’t. Also he has a cutter and a change.
Erin, you’re too quick. See if this one works.
http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play......730603-996
LGY – Damn these straw polls, now I’ll never be a teen model
If Robertson has great command and was locating his fastball on the corners like Mariano every time he threw it, I would give him credit for that. He does not. Mo pitches to the corners because he can, this makes hitters have to chase pitches anywhere near the strikezone, getting themselves out alot of times even when Mo misses his spot out of the zone. Robertson relies more on the swing and miss of pitches in the zone rather than out of it because he doesn’t paint the strikezone in an efficient manner (also why he walks so many guys, they don’t feel the need to swing at “something close”). Normally a pitcher would suffer greatly with this (as most do) but Robertson has a little extra something to his delivery which keeps him effective (and keeps hitters “off balance” or… “deceived”).
If he was constantly setting up hitters with his curveball I would give him that credit as well, but his normal routine is fastball fastball fastball to get ahead (or dropping a curve in the zone for strike one), then curve in the dirt that no one ever swings at… then right back to the fastball. He doesn’t really set them up, they can’t his this pitch in any count let alone when behind in one. How often does someone really bite on his 0-2 or 1-2 curveballs that drop a foot plus under the strikezone?
He relies on that “un-hittable 93mph fastball” for 80% of his pitches. Having seen a guy like Zumaya throw 100mph fastballs that have never landed and Robertson throwing 93mph fastballs that seemingly never get hit… There has to be something more to it than it just being “a good pitch”. If you took away the advantage his delievery gives him, he would naturally become much more hittable… making his raw stuff not the reason for his success but the “deception” of the delivery.
Someone just emailed this to me. Completely off-topic but hilarious.
http://media.boreme.com/post_m.....row-up.jpg
GreenBeret7 December 2nd, 2011 at 3:18 pm
Erin, you?re too quick. See if this one works.
http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play……730603-996
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Yay!!! Good job GB
If he was constantly setting up hitters with his curveball I would give him that credit as well, but his normal routine is fastball fastball fastball to get ahead (or dropping a curve in the zone for strike one)
:confused:
Erin, it looked like it was getting a little ugly with four guys fighting for room down a narrow pillar.
Opponents swing at his curveball 50% of the time so they clearly aren’t always laying off of it. He also throws 65% strikes with his fastballs, which is very good.
GreenBeret7 December 2nd, 2011 at 3:29 pm
Erin, it looked like it was getting a little ugly with four guys fighting for room down a narrow pillar.
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Robertson threw an 0-2 curveball 42 times last year, 60% of the time it was a swung on. His fastball was swung on 55% of the time and had a much higher whiff rate, as most hitters prolly expected the curve. 14% swinging strikes on the CU vs 19% on the ff in 0-2 counts
Here comes the rumor mongering with guest stars Jon Heyman, Buston Onley, Wallace Matthews, et al.
If I’m Cashman I’d be tempted to drop some false rumors just to wear out their phones and shoe leather.
Sounds like Cashman is bored. He’s got his decoys layed out, and no ducks. When he says he’s “ready to rock-and-roll” he is anxious to get things rolling. I do not see much happening till Pujols, Fielder, Darvish, or Wilson get resolved.
New Post: A few leftovers from today
Do any sites have something like batting average against, split by pitch type and count? Fangrahps only has splits by count and % of pitch types thrown.
Robertson threw an 0-2 curveball 42 times last year, 60% of the time it was a swung on
This, where did you get this?
Rappel, Rappel; One Man’s Erotic Journey From Manhattan to Stamford